154 BULLETIN 142, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



On St. George Island the high upland tundra has been chosen for breeding 

 ground. Here, among the reindeer " mosses " and light gray, lichen-covered 

 rocks the sandpipers reign supreme in the fog. Some speculating may be 

 indulged in to find a reason for so unusual a choice of locality. Elevations 

 up to 500 feet are sought. Perhaps they shun the seacoasts on account of 

 the presence there of large numbers of foxes. During all history this has 

 been a greater fox island than either St. Paul or St. Matthew. On the latter 

 island in June and July the birds may be found in large numbers around and 

 back of the drift-wood piles. If it were not for this fact being known, we 

 might suspect that on St. George the light gray tundra was selected for pro- 

 tective purposes, the birds themselves being distinguished chiefly by their 

 light colors. St. Paul Island, for some unaccountable reason, is not chosen 

 as a breeding ground except by a very few pairs. In 1919 not over a dozen 

 were found during the entire nesting season, when almost all of the available 

 areas were seen. 



On the breeding grounds of St. George and St. Matthew the birds are very 

 common, and from one to a dozen are in almost constant attendance upon the 

 visitor. They sight him from afar and fly to meet him. Some bird will almost 

 always try to lead him astray. If followed, it flies from knoll to knoll, often 

 not more than 20 yards away. It remains in front of the visitor regardless 

 of the direction he may take; whether toward or from the nest, makes no 

 difference. After several minutes of this a sudden flight, with the familiar 

 " song," is taken to some distant hill and the searcher for a nest is left 

 confused and confounded. 



A search for the nest will exhaust the patience of any except the most per- 

 sistent collector. Messrs. Compton and Partch have been more successful than 

 anyone else in locating them, and all of us agree that when a bird flies to meet 

 the visitor, as just described, it is a pure waste of time to watch or follow 

 it. Every method known to us of locating nests by watching the actions of 

 the parents has failed. We have located nests and then endeavored to estab- 

 lish rules for guidance with others, but no definite facts could be determined. 

 It was finally agreed that it was useless to watch a bird under any circum- 

 stances more than 15 minutes. If the location of the nest is not disclosed in 

 that time, it is safe to assume that the mate is on it, and it might be hours 

 before the guard would go there. In the meantime it may fly half a mile away 

 and forget to come back, even to tease the hopeful collector lying concealed 

 in the mist and fog behind some cheerless rock. No definite range can be 

 ascribed to any one pair of birds, because those off the nests mingle indis- 

 criminately. Very often a bird will fly completely out of the range of vision 

 in the fog. 



The action of a bird leaving a nest is unmistakable, and can always be recog- 

 nized, once it is learned. It is a quick, excited, jerky flight, very close to the 

 ground, and the bird goes but a very few yards until it feigns injury in its en- 

 deavor to entice the intruder away. It will always flutter in front of a person, 

 even though he walk directly toward the nest. When the bird is seen to fly, the 

 eggs are even more inconspicuous and difficult to find unless the exact spot from 

 which it flew be located. Crompton thus flushed a bird which he knew had 

 a nest, but he was at a loss to find it. At last he left his cane as nearly as 

 possible where the nest should have been and repaired to a near-by rock to 

 watch and wait. In a few minutes the bird returned to the eggs, which were 

 located about a yard from the stick. When the bird is flushed from a nest 

 it seldom happens that the other parent is near. 



The nest is a mere depression about three and a half inches wide by two 

 and a half inches deep. Most of the material is removed, but it is evidently 



